OUTSPOKEN COMMENT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXIV, Issue 29, 3 January 1944, Page 5

OUTSPOKEN COMMENT

WAR IN THE PACIFIC.

RUSSIAN PAPER’S VIEW

(Roe. 11.55 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 2 The most outspoken comment on the Pacific war yet made in Russia appeared in the journal War and the Working Class. “Japan has lost the strategic initiative in the Pacific. Her temporary advantages aro now a thing of the past.”

Reviewing the Gcnnan-Japancse relations the journal commented that the Japanese must he recalling the Oriental proverb, “He who mounts a tiger cannot easily dismount.” Japan had made the mistake of deciding that the strategic position of the Democracies, particularly Britain, was so weakened that the Japanese could safely and profitably" cast off its original policy of non-interference in tho worfd war. “Germany had hoped that the Pacific war would provide a diversion in the rear of Britain and America and also expected Japan to undertake military operations against the Soviet. But side by side with the pro-Fascist elements of Japan, which were pushing her towards a war against the Soviet, were other forces which more soberly estimated tho real possibilities and prospects. Japan showed common sense in her relations with the Soviet. “There is no doubt that Germany is not very pleased with her Ear Eastern ally’s military operations against Britain and America, which do not inflict sufficient military and economic damage to affect Germany’s position, and disappointment over Germany’s military might is growing in Japan.”